Read: The slow, messy evolution of LGBTQ dating shows
To my surprise, Our Flag Means Death turned out to be a perfect example of how to tell a slow-burn queer-romance story on TV. the famous Blackbeard (the wonderful Taika Waititi), and they go from enemies to allies to something more. The first three episodes document his bumbling failures until, in the fourth episode, he meets Edward Teach, a.k.a.
The series follows a fictionalized version of the real-life 18th-century pirate Stede Bonnet (played by Rhys Darby), who leaves his affluent life, his wife, and his children to seek adventure on the high seas. Watching Our Flag Means Death, the wildly popular HBO Max comedy that just finished its first season, I at first felt that familiar fear. Even if tension exists between a possibly gay couple over multiple episodes, queer viewers in particular can still worry: Am I just imagining this?
And because the proliferation of out, loving queer relationships on TV is a fairly recent development, most viewers tend to assume that characters are straight until they are proved, on-screen, otherwise. Scenes that could be interpreted as romantic are frequently revealed to be merely friendly or platonic in nature. Audiences know what’s happening because the story beats are so familiar.īut for same-sex pairings, it’s not so simple.
Through small gestures, lingering glances, and hints at Janine’s dissatisfaction with her current boyfriend, the show has established the beginnings of a classic will-they-won’t-they scenario. When that happens on ABC’s Abbott Elementary, the teachers Janine and Gregory have obvious chemistry. When a man and a woman on TV share an umbrella, and the man asks the woman if she’s happy in her relationship, the romantic implications are usually clear. This story contains spoilers for Our Flag Means Death.
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